I take both of these meds. I was diagnosed in May and have gotten a lot of relief. Trying to increase the Ampyra but it make me feel horrible if I take 2/day. This is not what you asked, but it is my positive experience.

I'm sorta with hightop. I take only 1 Ampyra a day, cause I REALLY get bad side effects when I take the 2 a day.
I do take 1 10mg Baclofen SOME DAYS, just NOT every day because I HATE waking up in bed that I just peed myself in and COULDN'T help it!! Baclofen relaxes my bladder muscles ttttooooooooooo much if I take it for too many days straight!!!!.

ALL THESE DRUGS HAVE BAD SIDE-EFFECTS!! You just need to learn the BEST way to use them by yourself. Sorry!!

I took Baclofen off and on thru out the years. When things worsened I had to take more and now have a Baclofen pump giving me the equivalent of 150mg.There was nothing available in 1989 when my MS started so disability accumulated.

Its really important to take something for the MS to protect your self from getting worse. That will keep drugs to the minimum.

Depending on your level of spasticity you can try magnesium or marijuana. But once spasticity gets serious magnesium alone cannot treat it. I don't know about marijuana but all reports are that it helps.

Take care

Melanie

I'm taking 4-5 20mg Baclofen/day for elasticity. It REALLY helps me. I think the only side effect might be weight gain. That could be from any of the other meds (or it could be because of my chocolate habit LOL)

My husband and I invested in an indoor therapy pool. You don't even need a pool now you can get a spa big enough for doing therapy in! And some insurance companies will help pay for them if you have a doctor's rx. We put in a larger size because we live in a warm place during the summer so we use it for swimming and therapy as well as getting cool. It stays at 86 which is perfect for swimming but is cool for just exercises....you can adjust the temp as high as you want. To answer your ?? YES constant activity wether it be swimming or walking is part of my routine. I have found it keeps my spasms at bay and actually helped resolve numbness in my left arm I was having. I couldn't tolerate Baclofen because of a rash anyway. I have tried many others and do use small doses of Valium, mostly at night or if I have done to much garden work I will get real bad back spasms. I am glad you are improving! This disease is a bitch but the alternative of being a complete & total spaz is not an option :)

Hello and Thanks!

I didn't know anyone responded because DS didn't send emails like they had in the past. So glad to hear back from you all!

You all have given me pretty good feedback on the drugs I asked about. I haven't had side effects from any of them so I take 2 Ampyra and 4 10mg Baclofen 2x's daily. After reading your comments, I may try to scale back on Baclofen and see if I really need it. I can't scale back on Ampyra; my knees feel it the next day. Maybe I'll try magnesium while cutting back.

I can't remember when my bladder started to fail, but I know where all of the restrooms are in a 30 mile radius of my home. There have been a few accidents over the last year, and maybe even a story that involves the backseat of our car and a tall startbucks cup! Maybe. I have urgency, frequency, and hesitancy. My urologist prescribed Vesicare to help out a little. It works, but I'm wondering if Baclofen is causing bladder dysfunction. Thank you Princess for sharing that info!

PT has helped out, but I'm not consistent. That's pretty good info on the therapy pool. I'll have to look into it. It would be so much easier to hop in whenever you wanted.

Thanks everyone!

I recently got a batch of pages of side effects from Medco for all the medicines I take. I stopped taking the Ampyra because of the side effects. I think that it was hurting me more than it was helping.

I get dry mouth from taking some of my meds. I am cutting my baclofen down because I already take zantaflex at bed but I was taking baclofen in addition. They do the same thing but I wanted to make sure I slept. But it is harder to get up with both of them.

I stopped taking my Rebif approx. 4 weeks ago and I wonder if it isn't helping me. I am starting to walk better. I think that cutting back on meds is helping me. IMHO.

Ampyra makes my legs tingle more.

I just found out that Ampyra (with a diff name here) is something the govt will finance here if it is effective, so I just came across this thread! I am so glad I did! I will def ask my doc about it, keeping the poss side effects in mind. I am over a 5 on the EDSS scale, and am sick of being a snail!
Also, thanks to what I read by princessgwenda, I think my suspicions that the baclofen was weakening my bladder have been confirmed. I started cutting back instinctively a week or so ago.

I can cut out Ampyra with no problems but I do have a lot of spasticity if I skip my Baclofen. I don't think that Amprya works for everyone and it really doesn't for me. I hear that it works better for those who are affected by the heat than those who are not. I am not as heat sensitive as others. Anyway, Amprya or not does not make a difference to me whether I take it or not. Perhaps it is because I only took one a day and didn't take it for more than a few weeks. I cannot really tell if I have taken it or not. It makes no difference to me.

Sorry that you get problems with Amypra when you stop. If you want to stop taking them, talk to your doctor about what to do to taper off. Lorrieonline says that she gets a lot of benefits from magnesium.